Pokémon: The First Movie arrived in 1999 courtesy of Warner Bros. and Nintendo, riding the crest of a franchise that had overtaken American playgrounds, television schedules, and toy aisles within a single year. The trailer served as an early herald of the film's ambitions, promising audiences a darker, more cinematic entry built around Mewtwo, a creation pushing beyond the games and television series into feature-length storytelling. For the generation raised on the show, this trailer marked the moment Pokémon proved it could command the big screen.
This particular cell preserves a promotional frame of Ash Ketchum, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu approaching Mewtwo's fortress, the core traveling party of the series united at a pivotal narrative threshold. Ash and Pikachu anchor the franchise itself, while Misty and Brock represent the original companions most associated with the show's formative years. As a trailer cell rather than a frame from the finished film, it belongs to the promotional material meant to build anticipation, a category collectors prize for capturing a cultural rollout rather than the feature itself.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm Dolby Digital release print trailer for Pokémon: The First Movie (1999).
Gauge
35mm, with four perforations per frame along both edges; the strip holds three frames, all of them complete.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced and cleanly punched, with rounded-corner rectangular holes and no torn or missing perforations seen.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track runs beside the picture, with Dolby Digital data blocks visible in the gaps between the lower-edge perforations.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture
Base & colour
Clear base with a slight pale blue cast at the edges; the dye image looks neutral, saturated and not visibly faded or shifted.
Projection history
No lines, scratches, cue marks or splices seen at this size.
Picture
Positive image; the three frames run consecutively as one near-static shot. Whether it matches the film on record cannot be confirmed from these frames alone.
Era check
A variable-area optical track with Dolby Digital blocks between the perforations is consistent with a 1999 35mm release print, since that format was current then.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000069853
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
